


Try to take what's lost and broke (and make it right)

by Lady_of_the_Dawn



Series: All our broken peices [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Bad Parent Maryse Lightwood, Bad Parent Robert Lightwood, Isabelle Lightwood Is So Done, M/M, and very confused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 16:16:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16066769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_the_Dawn/pseuds/Lady_of_the_Dawn
Summary: Years ago, she would have called another brother, one who would listen to her complain, sometimes for hours at a time. He had always loved the winter, the snow….No. She wouldn't think of him. It hurt to much, even after six years. But thoughts of him always surfaced the most during the holidays._________________Isabelle Lightwood hasn't seen or heard from her brother in years, since the day he left for college and never looked back. It hurt, but she's mostly over it (she tells herself)Until one day a sparkly boy interrupts her studies to tell he that Alec misses her and that the story is a bit more complex that she'd been led to believe





	Try to take what's lost and broke (and make it right)

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I've written for this fandom, so let's see how it goes 
> 
> Title from Burning House by Cam

Isabelle Lightwood pulled her jacket tighter around her and silently cursed the winter weather. And her brother, who, when she had complained about the cold to, had sent pictures of him and Clary in very sunny, warm L.A. Jace was a jerk like that.

 

Years ago, she would have called another brother, one who would listen to her complain, sometimes for hours at a time. He had always loved the winter, the snow….

 

No. She wouldn't think of him. It hurt to much, even after six years. But thoughts of him always surfaced the most during the holidays. 

 

Curling her back to ward against the chill, Izzy quickened her pace through the streets of New York City. At last she arrived at her destination. 

 

The little coffee shop door opened, the little bells tingling, announcing her presence. The place had been recommended to her by her roommate Mia as good place to do homework in the relative quiet and with a hot drink.

 

The twenty two year old college student then settled in with her books and laptop. She had work to do.

  
  
  
  
  


An hour and a half later Isabelle's skin begins to tingle in a way she knows well. Someone is watching her. She doesn't look up immediately. Being looked at is normal. She's pretty. She wears tight clothes ment to draw eyes.

 

After a few minutes she gives up and surveys the cafe. It doesn't take longer to find the man practically burning holes in her with his eyes. He's not exactly trying to hide it.

 

Older than her, maybe mid

twentys, and startlingly beautiful. Light brown skin that goes nicely with his slightly up tilted gold-green eyes and dark hair. Perfect makeup and clothes Isabelle recognizes as designer and expensive.

 

Not her type, but definitely someone she could see herself being friends with. Besides, she can see now that the stranger's stare isn't one of interest in her beauty, but something else.

 

She meets eyes with him across the room. He seems to take it as an invitation, rising and heading for her little table, his own cup and book forgotten.

 

He moves like a dancer, something Isabelle is familiar with having done dance for close to ten years. He stops and looks again at her from across the table with that same searching look.

 

“My name is Magnus Bane.” he introduced himself simply. “Sorry about the staring. I couldn't help it. Um, your name wouldn't happen to be Isabelle Lightwood, would it?”

 

She startled a bit. Of all the things she'd expected to hear, that hadn't been one of them.

 

“Um, yes actually. How did you know that?”

 

“We have a… mutual acquaintance. I've seen pictures of you, though outdated ones. Do you mind if I sit?”

 

“Er, sure.” Magnus took the empty seat while Isabelle tried and failed to figure out who this 'mutual acquaintance’ might be. She didn't know all that many people in New York outside of school, having been raised in a small historic town called Idris seven hours away by car from where she now lived.

 

She was certain they had never met before. Magnus was a very memorable person. She could now see the faint blue streaks in his hair that matched his fingernails and eye shadow. 

 

“I'm sorry if this seems strange or creepy. I'd be freaked out if some random stranger stared at me across the room then said they'd seen old pictures of me. But this person… you're still very important to him, even if it's been six years since you talked.”

 

Him. Six years. 

 

“You- you can't mean-”

 

“Yes darling. I mean Alexander.”

 

Suddenly she was no longer in a cafe in New York City.  No longer a collage student training to be a medical examiner. It was no longer December.

 

No, she was a sixteen year old girl returning home after a day spent at the pool with her friends, enjoying the last weeks of summer.

 

Isabelle remembered every detail like yesterday. Walking up the driveway and thinking it was strange how Alec's car was gone from the driveway since he didn't have much of a social life.

 

Walking down the hall to her room and stopping at her oldest brother's room, door wide open.  Stopping because his room was  _ wrong. _

 

The bed striped of sheets, shelves bare of books, walls missing posters. Gone were the archery awards and unframed photos, the boxes half packed for the New York University of Law he'd been accepted into and was set to leave for in two weeks.

 

She'd whipped out her phone and tried to call him, but it wouldn't connect. He'd blocked her, and Jace as well they figured out when he got back from Clary’s. His sparse social media accounts had  been deleted. They'd even tried emailing him, to no avail.

 

Every trace of him was just  _ gone.  _ It was like he'd never existed. Isabelle had been sixteen, Jace seventeen, Max only nine. Nine and so confused about where his big brother had gone, why their parents refused to speak of Alec. It had been awful. Still was. 

 

She was vaguely aware that Magnus was still talking. Izzy interrupted him.

 

“What the hell?” Her shock had, well, not disappeared but shifted to anger. Alec hadn't talked to anyone in their family in six years, and now this random guy showed up claiming to know him, saying he missed her.

 

Magnus took a deep breath. “Look Isabelle, Alexander is important to me, and you're important to him. I know he would likely kill me if he knew I was talking to you, but I also know having no contact with you has been killing him slowly over the years.”

 

“If it's killing him why is he doing it? And why would he kill you for talking to me? And since when does he let anyone call him  _ Alexander _ ?” 

 

He gave her a sad look. “It's not my story to tell,”

 

She stood up and began to stuff get books in her bag. “Then take me to him.”

 

“Right now?”

 

“I've been waiting nearly six years for an explanation. I'm not waiting a second longer.”

 

**LINE BREAK**

 

Alexander Lightwood opened the box of noodles and dumped the contents into the boiling water, humming along to the Christmas carol coming from the radio. It might only be the second week of December, but the local stations had been playing holiday toons since Thanksgiving.

 

Magnus had sighed, but Alec had been elated. He had been hearing what seemed like the same five songs repeated over and over all day and still wasn't tired of them. Magnus hadn't shared his sediment and had left their loft in search of a quieter place to read two hours ago, promising to be back in time for dinner.

 

The man's smile grew when he heard the door open andagnus call out “Alec, I brought home a surprise!”

 

Alec grabbed a hand towel, wiping the tomato sauce off and exiting the kitchen to smile at his boyfriend in the living room. 

 

“What kind of-” the words died in his throat as he took in the woman standing next to Magnus. It had been six years since he'd been in the same room as her, but in moments of weakness he would look at her social media pages, which sometimes hurt even more than not seeing her.

 

He's not sure who moves first, only that they are hugging, clinging to each other fiercely. Alec feels tears on his cheeks. Isabelle is crying too.

 

Then his sister pulled back and punched him in the gut. Hard. Alec doubled over in pain.

 

“I deserved that,” he wheezed.  _ Jesus Christ I don't remember her being able to hit like that.  _

 

“You definitely did asshole. Teach you to drop off the radar for  _ six fucking years.” _

 

Magnus, the traitor, laughs and says, “You two stay here and talk, I'll finish getting dinner ready.” then made his escape.

 

“Um, do you want to sit?”

 

The siblings do, Isabelle right next to him on the couch, gripping his hand tightly in her own.

 

“God Alec I missed you so much.”

 

His throat tightened. “I missed you too. And Max and Jace. Even Simon and Clary.

 

His sister chuckled slightly before her eyes go hard once again. “If you missed us so much why the hell did you just drop off the radar? We tried calling, texting, emailing! Nothing. Your school had no Alexander Lightwood on it when we called! For all we knew you were dead!

 

“And we mourned you like you were! Do you know how hard it was on us? Max was nine, and couldn't understand why his role model was suddenly gone!”

 

Izzy took a deep breath but continued before Alec could interrupt. 

 

“And then today, this random dude walks up to me in a coffee shop claiming to know my brother, that he misses us despite all evidence to the contrary! You better have a damn good reason for this,” She stared at him expectantly.

 

Alec took a deep breath. How many times over the years had he imagined this conversation? Now that it was here, all the words flew from his head.

 

“Ok. On the day I left you were at the pool, Jace was with Clary and Max was at a friend's. That was deliberate on my part. I didn't want any of you caught in the crossfire of the fight I knew was coming.” 

 

He looked away from his sister's questioning eyes, down to his hands. 

 

“I was expecting it to be bad, but not as bad as it was. See, I'd been planning it since I'd gotten my acceptance letter. You were out of the house, both mom and dad were home. So I still them down in the living room and told them that I wasn't going to Law School and that I. That im-” Damn it. Even after all these years it was still hard to say.

 

“I'm gay.”

 

He still doesn't look at his sister, even as she grips his hand tighter, whisper's “oh Alec,”

 

“They didn't take it well, either part. Dad started yelling but mom stopped him then  _ politely _ explained that they had a meeting at the law firm and I'd better be gone by the time they got back. That I could keep my car and my stuff as long as I took it with me that day. Also, that they wouldn't be paying for my college unless I 'came to my senses and accepted the path they'd set for me’. Meaning law school and marrying a girl. They also said that I wasn't to have any contact with you guys. They were afraid I'd infect you guys with the gay disease or something I guess.

 

“They made it clear that if i tried to talk to any of you guys they would disown you as well. So I didn't.”

 

By the end of the story both have given up on holding back their tears, letting them flow freely down their faces.

 

Izzy then pulls Alec into a hug that lasts for a long while, as if trying to make up for the six years they lost because of their parents.

 

Anger stirs in her gut but she pushes it down, a problem to deal with another time. For now she hugs her big brother.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Edit: my Tumblr is highladyofgothamcity if you wanna chat there!
> 
> Second part is now up!


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